WORLD AND NATIONAL EVENTS
United States:
Impeachment hearings focussed on Presidents Trump’s shenanigans are dominate North American headlines. The economy is still robust and US unemployment at 3.5% is the lowest in decades but there are threats bearing down from all sides: Trump’s instability, trade wars with China and Europe and the soaring US national debt. So the near future is, to say the least, uncertain.
Brexit:
The difference between the dominant stories out of the US and the UK is that Brexit has no term limit. The Brexit genie is out of the bottle and even a second referendum won’t push him back in. Don’t forget that what the UK has been engaged in for three years is just an agreement to leave on good terms. Imagine if you resign from your job but you still want to work for your ex-employer as an independent contractor. Your employer states that of course you can go but he won’t negotiate to work with you in the future unless you agree to certain conditions before you leave. A “no-deal” Brexit is like saying I don’t agree with your conditions so I’ll leave on my terms and there are lots of others that will work with me even if you don’t. Maybe there’ll be a deal by Halloween but it seems unlikely. What you can bet on as a dead-cert however is an election before Christmas.
Canada:
I’m voting Green this time in the certain knowledge that, because of Justin’s cynically broken promise on election system reform, my chosen candidate has no chance of being elected to parliament. So my vote is to protest the above and other broken promises and the hypocrisy of the current government without directly putting their main opponents in power. If things go the way I would like them to go, the next government will not enjoy a majority and the Green party will pick up a lot more votes and perhaps a few seats as they struggle for electoral fairness in a system designed to protect the hegemony of the two major parties.
TAX NEWS
I will include in the blog selected items I think may be of interest to my clients with references to more detail if you need to dig deeper. Let me acknowledge the main source of these blurbs TAX TIPS dot CA which I recommend as a great resource of up-to-date tax information.
Flipping properties:
Yes, if you sell a principal residence your gain is exempt and otherwise the profit will be 50% taxable as a capital gain. But beware, if you are a serial property “flipper”, you could be 100% taxed on your capital gains if you live off the gains as a major source of income.
Real Estate Sales – Are They Taxable? What about my Principal Residence?
Employee Parking:
As a general proposition, if an employer pays for his employee’s parking at his place of work, this becomes an employment benefit and is included on the employee’s T4. However, there are some interesting exceptions that you should bear in mind.
Employee Parking Provided by Employer
Shareholder Loans:
As a general rule, better to pay yourself a salary or dividend than to remove money from your corporation without paying tax. If you don’t repay the borrowing within 12 months of the fiscal year you borrowed it, you are required to declare the amount on your personal tax return as income. And if you don’t so declare, you could be subject to 50% penalties for gross negligence.
Shareholder Loans and their Tax Implications
Make your accounting life easier with these 5 tech tools:
This CPA article contains links to software applications to make life easier for you. Check out creating an Excel spreadsheet from a picture using your phone or a business management tool for budgeting, forecasting, KPI reporting.
https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/news/accounting/the-profession/2019-09-30-accounting-tech-tools
How do I hire a remote worker?
Do you have occasional or ongoing tasks in your business that can be performed remotely? This site will put you in contact with hundreds of thousands of freelance accountants, designers, IT specialists in fact every profession under the sun (except maybe hairdressers and dentists 😊) often at a fraction of the cost of what you might pay for the same service in Canada.
https://www.upwork.com/
https://www.business.com/articles/growth-through-outsourcing/
